Openining Pandora's Box
by redheadturkey
Summary: When some ShinRa employees and a few members of Avalanche crash land on Pandora, they must find a way to adapt in the face of a new threat. One of them must also decide which means more to him. His partner, or his new life.
1. Chapter 1

"We are way, WAY th'fuck off course, Highwind. ... " Reno shook his head as the rocket began to come down, their fuel almost gone, air supplies nearly empty, food running low as well. "We are gonna fuckin' die, all because SOMEBODY couldn't be arsed ta watch th'fuckin' instruments so he didn't FLY through th'fuckin' sun's corona and end up in some place I have no idea WHERE th'fuck it is!" His face held a snarl as he watched the small moon of Pandora, though none of them knew that was what it was called, grow larger in the screens. It was the only even somewhat inhabitable planet for what looked like an EXTREMELY long distance, so really it was the only option they had now unless they were going to simply die in space, and Reno had no intention of doing THAT today.

"Well, that's it. . .." the voice belonged to the faintly Asian-looking man on the other side of the rocket as the fuel finally ran completely out, the rocket being caught in Pandora's gravity well and beginning to hurtle toward it, the sound around the craft a muted roar as friction began to superheat it, making the interior fairly hot as well. Tseng began praying in Wutain that they would survive the crash, and that the city they saw in the screen as they came closer had people in it willing to help.

Crimson eyes flashed over the top of the red cape, Vincent lifting his gun from the holster. This trip had been intended as a test mission, a single orbit around Gaia to see if longer flights were feasible, not as a long flight that landed them in what appeared to be a very hostile environment. He could hear Chaos whispering from the back of his consciousness that this was likely to be very messy indeed, and that being prepared was the wisest idea at the moment. _Yes, I realize this, Chaos. This is not where we should be, but unfortunately there is not much else we can do aside from survive and hope for rescue._

"Well, Norm. .. there's something you don't see every day." Grace Augustine shielded her eyes as she peered up into the sky where the rocket was falling, shaking her head. "I haven't seen a craft of that type in. .. what? almost 200 years? I know it's been a pretty damn long time." At this point she assumed it was empty, that it was little more than space junk, but it never hurt to be prepared. "Get my medical gear out, would you? I doubt there's anyone aboard, it's probably not much more than floating garbage that's gotten caught by Pandora's gravity, but it never hurts to be safer rather than sorry."

Jake too had seen it, from another section of the perimeter around the compound, and he waved Neytiri to stay back, if only because he wasn't sure he trusted what he was seeing. He groaned, rolling his eyes as he realized his mate was FAR from likely to listen. "Ok, fine, come with me, but for Eywa's sake, PLEASE stay close? I would really rather not have you hurt, and there's damn good reason for that."

That "Damn good reason" being one that Neytiri had yet to share with her lifemate, though, she knew he meant a different reason than the one that was on her mind--She smiled despite herself, then moved closer to Jake as they both moved with that eerie grace that the Na'vi had, the tall bodies moving in sync, another testament to why their bond was so important to them. In battle, it wasn't unheard of for mated pairs to fight along side one another, considering they could easily anticipate the others moves, and could effectively defend and in turn, help each other. "Jake..." One eye narrowed as she tried to estimate how long they had before the craft made impact, and where--hoping that if they had the time, they could possibly minimize the damage done to the surroundings.

"It will hit too soon," Tsu'tey made a face as he made his way towards them, letting out a series of loud clicks, calling to his Ikran, "There are a few of us going up, to watch it as it comes in--in case there is something more dangerous to it than it simply colliding with the ground." At the nod from Neytiri, he leapt onto his Ikran's back and took off, whooping loudly as she banked then climbed rapidly, followed by a few of the newer warriors in the tribe.

"Uhhh, Grace?" Norm nudged at her, "that's heading right for us, you know." He let out a yelp as the craft suddenly swung low, and he jumped out of the way, taking Grace with him as he felt the searing heat coming from the ship. "Holy crap, that can't be good. I---I don't think it's empty, I get a really, really bad feeling that things are about to get really--" There was a resounding boom, and he turned in time to see a wave of soil and smaller plants flying in the air, "--messy."

As the rocket hit the ground, it was instant chaos within the inner sanctum, people rolling and hitting one another violently, screams filling the air as the ship began to literally come apart around them. Cid had forgotten a key part of making the inside of the rocket more geared towards the creature comforts for others would be seats that weren't rock hard, or cheaper safetybelts, though the latter was because Rufus hadn't thought to go entirely ALL out for the first rocket, since it was only to prove the fact that it was possible, and it was only supposed to be one orbit.

The pain that flashed over Reno's nerves was only momentary as he hit the metal walls of the rocket hard, searing up his spine as the crash forces whipped his legs into positions a human being's legs were never designed to go, a cracking noise sounding as his spine literally SNAPPED in half, paralyzing him from the waist down almost instantly before his head slammed into the wall, knocking him utterly unconscious as he collapsed to the floor. He was still alive, still breathing, but from the way he'd been positioned it would LOOK as if it was somewhat of a surprise that he was, though aside from the severed spine, a concussion, and multiple bumps and bruises, the lithe Turk was surprisingly uninjured. He'd not even had a chance to cry out before he was knocked out.

"Norm, bring respirator masks too!" Grace's voice cried out as blood began to seep through the cracks in the metal skin of the rocket, indicating there had INDEED been people inside the craft. "There were passengers inside, and they're going to NEED them!" She called in "Hello? Is there anyone in there alive? Say something if you can hear me and if there's anyone alive or conscious in there!" She was trying to ascertain how much damage had been done to those inside.

"I am unharmed." Tseng's voice was ragged, raspy sounding, but aside from some cuts and bruises he was pretty much unhurt. "But there is injured aboard. If there is a doctor about, it would be very helpful." He hadn't realized that Pandora's toxic atmosphere had begun to leak into the craft yet, there was still enough of the rocket's air supply remaining that he was only slightly light headed, not gasping for breath as he would be were it pure Pandora, and not the mix that it was now.

Vincent wobbled to his feet, beginning to search for the rest. "Cid? Cloud? Tifa? Elena? Eryn? President ShinRa?" He called for the others that had been aboard with them, wanting to be certain they were at least alive, though unharmed was fairly unlikely. The rocket had nearly shattered apart upon impact, debris scattered over the ground outside the Avatar compound. It had been an extremely ROUGH and ugly looking landing. Rougher than he'd been prepared for, really, but he'd survived it, and he supposed that was what counted.

Jake's eyes narrowed as he approached the crash site, and he peered at Neytiri and Tsu'tey both. "Neytiri, go help Grace prepare for the wounded that's CERTAIN to come from the crash! She's likely going to need assistance with them. Tsu'tey, help me get the wreckage clear so we can GET to the survivors of the crash. We have four minutes to get them out of there, get masks on them, and get them into the air lock of the compound before they all suffocate. I'm going to need your help to make sure that happens." He didn't have a reason to trust these "sky people" that had come to Pandora, but they were injured, and he couldn't bring himself to be cruel enough to leave injured people, human or not, to simply die.

The sound of screeching metal finally stopped, though now Neytiri and Mo'at could hear the screams coming from within, and the shouted words--clearly human, though they both felt there was something different about them, they weren't the humans they were used to dealing with. Glancing at her mother before she dashed across the ground and leapt onto the craft, hissing at the heat that came from it, but it made it easier to wrench the hatch door from its hinges, granting them the access they needed to get inside. She slipped inside, carefully, knowing that everything was going to be too small for her to maneuver around in easily, though she could at least get them OUT and get the masks on them easier than any other way.

The nearest one to her was a younger woman, her blonde hair matted with blood, and the sounds of her screaming made her wince in sympathy. She yelled out to Norm, who had already been in the middle of trying to clamber up the side of the rocket, with little success, to throw her the masks, that her previous idea was already scrapped in favor of getting the masks on those she could reach, then hand them out, then get to the others that were trapped further inside. Moving to the woman's side, she tried to shush her, but it was to no avail. She moved fast to secure the mask over her face, and then moved even faster to remove her from the mangled wreckage, handing her off to Jake, whom she know she would be in trouble with later for her somewhat brash and unthinking actions, even if they did save lives.

Next to be found was another blonde, this time a man, and thankfully he'd been knocked out in the crash, so there was no fight from him as she lifted him up to Norm, who had finally gotten onto the rocket, after securing the mask to his face as well. She moved quickly then, calling out to see if she could get a count on who was still conscious, and who was missing--the names meant nothing to her, though the descriptions that were yelled out helped tremendously as she picked through debris to locate who she could, tossing masks to those that could get them on on their own. "Get them on, and quickly. You will not survive long without them." She reached for the next one she could, this time, finding herself coming face to face with a dark haired man that looked like he'd seen better days.

Dismounting his Ikran, Tsu'tey made his way over and joined in the rescue effort, though he made a face when he was handed the dark haired man--he still didn't like humans, they annoyed him, and he was worried that more were coming like before, but he pushed it aside enough to help them. The next out that he was able to grab was another blonde haired man, this one struggling, and letting out a stream of curses to rival the ones he'd heard from Jake when he'd first gotten to the Hometree.

Tseng was STARING at their blue skinned rescuers, his jaw open as the mask was slipped over his face, though he immediately noted they spoke a language very similar to the Common back home, similar enough that he could understand them. "There are two more in the back, one of them is trapped, please help them." he told Neytiri, dark eyes weary. "The trapped one likely has sustained a spinal injury, please be careful with him." He had seen the sheet of metal come down onto Reno after the rocket had begun to disintegrate, and he could hear Eryn cursing. "Eryn, are you unharmed?" he called back to her, hoping to get an affirmative.

Jake took Elena in his arms, and pinned her eyes. "Relax, we're NOT going to hurt you. . .we're trying to help you." His voice was soothing, with very little of the odd accent that the voices of the native Na'vi carried. In fact, his manner and accent would likely remind Elena much of her sempai. The great golden eyes had a kindness in them, one that she was not likely to forget later. "Come on, let's get you inside where you can be checked over." He began to direct her into the compound, hoping that in her shell shocked state she wouldn't fight.

Vincent was utterly silent when he was passed to Tsu'tey, holding his breath until the mask was slipped over his face. He'd seen Rufus and Cloud both carried out of the rocket, both unconscious, likely from having hit their heads on the walls of the craft during the crash, but aside from some bumps and bruises they looked as if they were fairly unharmed. He took the time to scan the landscape as he was lead toward the compound, curiosity lighting the crimson eyes, just as groan sounded from the trapped Turk at the back of the craft.

Tseng shot one look at Eryn as he was lead out, the expression on his face clear. _You can handle this one. I may be a brave man, but I do not want to be within a million MILES of my second in command when he's told of the life changing nature of his injuries._

"Momma?" the voice was weak, raspy, as there was the sound of shifting metal. ..then a loud, startled shriek as the owner of the voice realized his HEELS were in view before he fainted dead away again in shock.

Once he was on the ground, Cid rounded on the others, the mask over his face barely masking his annoyance with them. They had some _nerve_ yelling at him, _blaming_ him for this. They didn't know the ass end of a rocket from the front, and they sure as Hell had no idea of all the things that could easily go wrong, thanks to how much of a temperamental mistress the Universe was. He'd told every one of them to sit down, to shut up and let him think, but did anyone think to actually listen to the one man on board that knew what he was doing? Noooo, of course not, they never did! Oh, he was worried about them, he really was, there was no doubt that he felt terrible that they were hurt, but his worry was dulled, somewhat, by the fact that he'd warned them all, had been trying to tell them that there had been something suddenly cropped up, but everyone had been too busy getting after him to listen.

Tsu'tey looked over at Jake then, and gestured for him to come over, to handle Cid while he tried to help the others--this one seemed to be a little more...knowledgeable than the others, and Jake likely would be able to get more from him than he himself could. Walking past Neytiri, who was trying to get the rest of the humans out, he went to the dark haired man he'd gotten out first. The feeling he got from him was interesting, and he wanted to see what there was to it, if anything, or if he was just simply fascinated.

Elena finally at least stopped her maddened struggles to get away, though she was still breathing hard, staring way, _way_ up at Jake as he tried to calm her down. "W-Where are we?" She finally asked, her first words since the entire ordeal had began, "This....this isn't home, this isn't anywhere NEAR home..." She shuddered as she was led towards the compound, the profoundly well built buildings beckoning to her in a way that both intrigued her, but also worried her. "Who're you? You...you kinda look like someone I've seen before...but....that can't be right..." She'd seen photos of Jenova, and was already noticing the striking similarities that were between them.

Neytiri helped Eryn get out first, instructing the woman to put the mask on her son before she exited the craft, and then her attention turned to the most injured of the lot that had been inside, the grimace on her face enough to tell anyone that could see it that she didn't like the things she was seeing. Carefully, she moved the debris covering Reno, then even more gently, she removed Reno himself, moving to kick the side of the rocket out so she didn't need to try and lift him up and out of the hatch. She knew once Jake got a look at Reno, he would be founding Grace to find a way to make things easier for him, and she couldn't blame him, she felt a stinging pang of sympathy for the human in her arms. "Everyone, inside, there will be time enough later to answer all your questions, right now, the injured need to be taken care of, before anything else."

"Jake Sully." Jake introduced himself with a slight smile. "The woman carrying your friend there is Neytiri, my mate. We'll explain everything as soon as we've taken care of your injured." He assured her of that as Grace gestured them all inside, her face holding a grim expression as she assessed the injuries of those being brought in. He too shuddered in sympathy as he noticed the way the young man's legs hung limp in her grasp, even more limp than his unconscious state would lend itself to. He did, indeed, have every intention of talking to Grace as soon as the newcomers were stable, about getting an Avatar made for the man.

Grace smirked at Jake, tossing her braid over her shoulder with a single movement of her head. "I already know what you're thinking. . .and as soon as I can get a sample of his dna, I'll get right on it. Hell, might do it for anyone who wants one in the group. You know, and I know, that the RDA won't be content to let things lie forever, and we could always use the extra firepower." She began to pull out a syringe, only just noticing the smirk on Tseng's face as she did.

"You'd do best to get your sample while he is still unconscious. Reno dislikes needles intensely, and with his currently addled condition, he's likely to panic if he sees you approaching with one." It was one of the things Tseng had learned very early on in his association with the redhead, and he figured it was better preparing the woman for it NOW than having Reno hurt her and possibly further injure himself by having a bad reaction to it. He saw her loft a brow, and very quickly draw her blood sample, noting that she had the cap on the syringe and the sample stuck into a drawer on something that looked very like a huge computer.

"Jake wasn't too enormously fond of the things, either, so I know how to handle someone with a dislike of them. There we go. . .I've perfected the process of creating the avatars. ..in 9 months, I'll have it grown to adolescence and ready to decant and use." There had been an odd glitch when the computer had read through Reno's DNA profile, but it was one that would not be noticed until the body had grown to the point of no return, to a point where things would have to fall as they would. It wasn't anything that would make the avatar useless, it was simply something that was likely to make the experience. . .somewhat odd for the one driving it.

She shook her head. "You guys came out of this surprisingly well, let me tell you. Even your friend here with the spinal injury didn't suffer anything life threatening. A concussion and a few bumps and bruises. You were, in my opinion, extraordinarily lucky, and I'd be kissing Lady Luck thank you, were I you."

Vincent gave a brow loft, then chuckled. "We were, I suppose. If you consider being flung however many miles from home fortunate, though I suppose living through the landing is a fortunate thing." His voice held an ironic tone to it. He was used to dealing with the people in question on the ship, he knew there capabilities, and that they were quite durable. "Is there anything I can help you with? I have a steady hand, and a good eye." The offer was made simply because he couldn't see not helping in a situation of THIS sort, where disaster wasn't discriminating between good and bad.

He closed his eyes a moment, and the memory of the time before, the explosion, and Cloud's words that had been spoken in that halting, haunting tone the blond was so famed for. The swordsman hadn't wanted to kill the two, any more than he had wanted to have to kill Sephiroth again, or by extension the boy whose body the mad general had seized control of. _Maybe there was a method to Fate's madness. A new world, a fresh start, perhaps? It's all we can hope for, I suppose._

A Na'vi boy of perhaps 14 or so leaped through the hole that Neytiri had made in the back of the ship, helping the dark haired human with the black dot in the middle of his forehead clear the rubble from the last section of the ship where a bald human had also been buried, and when the muscular male was freed from the wreckage, he lifted the man up into his arms, long tail twitching a bit nervously as he carried Rude into the compound. Rah'mi had never even left the forest, much less come this close to the human place before. But something about these humans fascinated him, made him curious, and his gold-green eyes took in everything about the building as he carried the other inside.

After setting Rude down on the cot where Grace directed him to, he caught sight of Reno, and his eyes went wide. The other looked much as he would were he human. . .and he turned to Norm, stating in Na'vi "He looks like me. Norm, why does he look like me?"

Okay, how long had he been out? And more importantly, most importantly, really, where was, _how _was, Reno?! Was Reno okay, what the hell ...that ..landing had keelhauled Rude, and there was no way around that, was there. There was no way for him to wax macho at a time like this, to pretend that all was well and he had the fucking situation in hand.

He didn't.

Son of a BITCH, he didn't.

Out of nowhere, a taunt from Yazoo came back to haunt him, and his brow furrowed, as he struggled to get himself seeing clearly -- Yazoo had mocked them, dared them, forced their hands at every step of the way, and Loz had been right there, both of them pushing until death was the ultimate verdict.

Those words ..

"Why don't you actually try now, to beat us, hmm? Oh wait! You _are _trying ....poor things...."

Yeah ..they had been trying. Goddamn it to hell, they had been trying. Just like now, and again, they were fucking found wanting and you better believe it. Wanting in a way that was not acceptable to Rude, and he knew it wasn't to Reno either.

_Reno_!

Seeing a movement out of the corner of his refusing-to-focus eye, Rude breathed out a pained - oh there was hurt, there was hurt alright -- question, and it bore all his despair and fear:

"R-Reno .........................help me find him .............._please_..."

"Reno is being tended to as we speak." Neytiri had heard the gasped question as she was walking past Rude, heading to see if there was any way she could help Grace with the aforementioned redhead. Pausing, she looked down at Rude, and noted the look in his clearly unable to focus eyes. There was a concern there that went beyond the simple concern for a friend, and it made her wonder-- "If you will allow me to attend to you, I can have you closer to him shortly. When he comes back around, he will need those that know him best to be near him." She paused, hearing a slight commotion, her ears flicking for a moment before she turned her attention back to Rude, "Perhaps more than ever, he will need them closest to him."

She could tell she was starting to lose the other with her abstract way of speaking, and she tried to buckle down a bit and at least speak a little more tangibly. "Of those in your vessel, he was the most injured. He will need support, to deal with this--my mate was once in his same position, he knows well what trials and tribulations he will face, and will help as much as he can, but those closest to your friend will be the key to him not losing faith."

The commotion she'd heard, was of course, the group around Reno working on him. Norm shook his head as he tried to help Grace, but he knew he needed to try and stay out of her way, as clumsy as he was. "He's pretty okay aside from the obvious, right?" He grimaced as he looked down at the limp legs, knowing just how much that Jake had hated it, and he hadn't even known Jake that long while he'd been in the chair. "Man... wonder where they came from though? That's not one of the _their_ ships, that one looks almost ancient." He looked around at the others, backing away from the table so he wasn't in the way. "That's not even close to one of the old 1960's rockets, it looks like it could've been from World War One or something."

Cloud stirred, letting out a quiet groan as he sat up slowly, rubbing his head, blinking as he looked around. The straps from the facemask startled him, the memory of the crash one that he didn't have, the concussion knocking him literally, a fair bit senseless. He started to remove the mask, but a hand stayed him, and he looked up to see Rufus shaking his head. The blonde had finally gotten up himself, and had been making rounds, allowing Tseng to handle the Turks for the moment as he tried to soothe the ruffled feathers of those that weren't of the company. Blue locked onto blue, and they shared a moment of silent communication, something that was normal for them, neither of the two being big on speaking much unless there was something needing to be said.

Rufus sighed, and nodded before looking away from Cloud. He knew that it had been his own fault for this, seeing as he hadn't given Cid the larger budget he'd asked for when they had discussed restarting to Aerospace Project. He'd figured that a lower budget would be safe until it was off the ground again, and then he was going to authorize doubling it, giving Cid the extra money to invest in things he needed. He hadn't thought that Cid would really want to take the vessel he'd built out into space, he'd thought that he would just use it to show him that he could build the ship once again, but as always, the pilot had surprised him, and he'd had no choice but to come along on her maiden voyage, a day trip sort of thing.

The computer system was outdated by a decent number of years, and that had been part of the issue with why they had ended up....wherever this place was. The planet had a wicked sort of beauty to it, from what he'd seen during the crash and when they'd been helped inside the compound, and he couldn't remember having ever seen such elegance and prismatic brilliance in a place--Gaea had been on its way to looking less and less like a thriving planet and more like a waystation for passing intergalactic travelers. The forests were few and far between unless you looked to the Wilds of the Northern Continent, and large expanses of unoccupied space were rare to find unless you looked to the vast deserts of the South, where only the Nomadic people of the sands could stand to live in such a harsh climate.

The blonde knew that his family's company had much to do with how the world looked now, his Grandfather's dream of being the largest producer and contractor for weapons lost in his son's bid for power, and thirst for tyranny. ShinRa was never supposed to have grown as much as it had, it shouldn't have ever included many of the things that it now encompassed, making it a monopoly of most every kind of business found on the planet. He was trying to make the most of what the company was now, knowing that he had no other choice unless he simply shut the whole thing down and restarted completely, which had truly crossed his mind more than once, but he hadn't found a way to make it work feasibly. _Yet._

Elena listened to Jake and nodded, steadily calming herself down a little more with each passing moment, though her mother hennish nature towards her co-workers was starting to take over, and she was hovering, watching Reno closely as they worked on him. She would kept her mind full of questions to herself for as long as she could stand, Gods knowing that she had plenty of them. She was still wary of the tall creatures around them, but the sentience and the obvious intelligence that went beyond what one would have thought upon first seeing them helped her accept their help and their word a little easier. "He's going to be okay, right?" She asked, peeking under Grace's arm as she worked on the redhead.

"Aside from the fact that if he's anything like Jake he's going to be pretty damn pissed off? Yeah, he'll be all right. He seems to be a pretty tough bird, if the fact that he even _survived_ that wreck is any indication. The lot of you seem to be a pretty durable group, and I must say I'm impressed." Grace tossed the braid over her shoulder, giving Elena the smile that Jake knew well, though none of these people likely did yet. She very gently moved his legs so they at least _looked_ like they were in a normal position, making things a bit less disturbing for the others to look at,

Grace of course had the good sense to turn and reassure the bald man that seemed to be the redhead's friend, knowing that if he was as stubborn as he appeared, he was likely to try to get up to check on the slender male, and right now it wouldn't be a very wise idea. "Settle back, big guy. He's going to be all right, just give him a bit to recover from the shock of seeing his heels staring him in the face. You've got a concussion, though, and a fairly nasty one, I might add. _You_ need to rest a while."

Jake gave another shudder of sympathy, then pulled Tsu'tey aside, he had a job for the young warrior, one he was _not_ likely to like, but with Neytiri busy with other duties, Tsu'tey was the one who was most readily available for the task at hand. "Tsu'tey, once any of those who _choose_ to have avatars made have them, I want you to act as their teacher. I have my suspicions that they're going to be _sxkawng_ like I was when I first got into the forest, and I'd really rather not be dealing with a bunch of dead aliens if I can avoid it."

He could see the scowl already beginning to spread over Tsu'tey's face, and he was prepared to deal with the objection he was sure was coming, though it would be in the form of pulling _rank_ on the hunter, which would likely piss Tsu'tey off even more, but Jake needed someone who knew the forest as well as he and Neytiri did to teach these people its ways.

A soft groan sounded from the table in the back, Reno's eyes fluttering open and the question immediately slipping from his lips. "Rude. .. where's Rude? Is he ok, did he survive the crash?" The redhead's first concern was for his partner and his coworkers, but he knew that Elena and Tseng and Rufus and the others had escaped mostly unharmed, as he had seen bits and flashes of them as they'd been carried inside, even in his semi conscious state. He pushed himself into a sitting position, trying to get his eyes to _focus_, finally catching sight of the creamed coffee skin that he could identify immediately as Rude's. "Oh, thank the Goddess. You're all right." Even in the grave situation, Reno smiled, relieved as he had been when Rude had been pushed out of the chopper that he was all right and not dead.

It took several more moments, as Reno began to struggle to _get_ to Rude, for him to realize the full extent of his injuries. "I can't move my legs. . ." the statement was made in a very sparse and dry tone of voice, a statement of fact, no real emotion yet, as if he was still partly in shock, which was actually rather likely. "Would someone care to explain what the Hell happened in that crash that has my legs floppin' like a couple of fish carcasses, because I have like. . .very little memory of it. So yeah, an explanation would be appreciated right now."

Tseng shook his head, and then peered over at Rude. "You broke your back in the crash, but there are measures being taken to rectify that." The Wutain then watched as Grace returned to Reno's field of vision, and braced for the reaction. He suspected that Reno was going to see her and the other blue people as a threat, due to their size, and he would be quick to allay the response before Reno managed to further injure himself.

Reno did indeed let out a yelp as the huge blue body came into full focus, and attempted to scramble further back, only to have another hand latch onto his shoulders to keep him from tumbling off the exam table. He peered behind him to see Vincent there, his lips lifting off his teeth. "What the HELL, yo?" But then as he got whacked in the head and shoved back down by Grace, he noted the scowl on her face, and it was one he'd seen on his own doctor's face more than once. Which told him she was not only intelligent, but in the medical field, quite likely.

"Settle down, buster. I'm working on having you an avatar body made. . .like mine. While it's growing, I'm going to teach you how to use the link chambers, and when it's complete, you'll be able to link up with it, and you'll be back on your feet again, well, for 16 out of 24 hours, anyway. And if you don't do anything _extraordinarily_ stupid, you'll be fine. The avatars, like the natives, have carbon fiber intermixed with the calcium in their skeletons, so another spinal injury isn't very damn likely." Grace's expression was stern. "But you need to heal first."

She gave a chuckle then, and shook her head. "By the way, welcome to Pandora. We can have a question and answer session once everyone's up to it."

Rude felt like he was exhaling for the first time in many years, and while that of course was technically impossible, the effect and impression of that was still there--- a relief so intense and so severe as to be absolutely and completely gut wrenching in its totality. Reno was alive, Reno was speaking to him, Reno was asking for him, Reno was looking at him -- -well, he had been, until he had been forced back down again. That was very likely just exactly what needed to happen, though, because from what Rude's highly unfocused and bitterly straining vision was trying to convey, Reno's legs were not --

--not ---

not normal.

There was only one way he could mentally allow it, and it was not phrase it to himself that way.

No, there had to be another way to describe it in the wilderness of his thoughts, wildly grasping for straws of comfort and reassurance and finding so very precious little in the way of anything like that at all now. The presence of the others wasn't helping, who cared if they were not alone here, if Reno had come to some sort of grave ruin! What use was it, what point was it all, if Reno of all people was now harmed and hurt in some way that Rude's fogged and clouded mind was still efforting to wrap itself around?

Yet, what else was there to do but play ball?

"I'd like some question and answer. NOW. Like.....RIGHT now." 

"M'okay, partner, other than the fact that I can't feel anything from somewhere around the middle of my back down. Got a headache to beat all headaches, but considering how fuckin' horrific that crash was, s'probably to be expected, right?" Reno reached out a hand as the big blue woman who had identified herself as Grace pushed the two exam tables together, giving Rude's a bit of a squeeze to reassure him he was there, and mostly in one piece. He then peered up at Grace. "So I get ta have a body like yours? _Neat_! Though I gotta say the tail? Yeah, that's gonna take some getting used to." Reno had always had an odd love of the strange and unusual, and he always managed to land on his feet, so to speak, even in the most insane of situations. It was one of the things which had made him so good at his job.

"Well, in a way" Grace continued to work on them both, gesturing to Norm for the sutures and needles as she disinfected a gash across Reno's head, which drew a soft hiss of pain from the redhead. "The avatar needs to rest for eight hours a day, the same way a human body needs sleep. You'll be in your normal body during those eight hours, but I doubt you'll be bored. There are things like video logs and other things that normally get done during those hours, so you won't be just sitting around and doing nothing." Next she administered a topical anesthetic, and began to stitch the gash, giving the suture a good tug and tying it off as she finished. "This is going to scar, but most of it is hidden under your hairline, and it's likely to look good on you anyway."

Tseng quirked a brow at Reno, then gave a quiet head shake. "I dare say you will be all right. I need to go check on the President, I will return in just a few moments." With that, he walked over to Rufus, asking quietly "Are you certain you are entirely uninjured, sir? That was a very rough landing, and we all need our faculties about us if we are to adapt to our new circumstances. If you need to be looked over, I am certain Grace would be willing to do so once she is finished with Reno and Rude."

Vincent meanwhile had finally made his way over to Cid, setting a hand on his shoulder. "Give them some time to get past the shock, and their anger will fade, you know that. They know this is not something you are to blame for, as I do, but in situations of this nature looking for someone to hold responsible is always the first reaction, and those who are in positions of leadership are often those who have it landed on their shoulders first." The hellfire eyes dimmed for a moment as the gunner gave the shoulder beneath his hand a soft squeeze, one he hoped was reassuring. He then strode over to check on Cloud, knowing the blond swordsman had likely been shaken up as well.

Jake gave Tsu'tey a firm look, one that said he was not about to take no for an answer as he watched the emotions playing across the warrior's face. "Don't make me pull rank on you, Tsu'tey, I'd really rather not do that. I'd rather not have to sic Neytiri on you to get this done, either. I _need_ your help here, Brother. _Please_, give me that help without me having to yell you down."

_..... the fuck? ..._

_ ...they're kidding, right?! ..._

Looking over at Tseng and Rufus, Rude tried to make what he was feeling come across in a more polite fashion than the way it wanted to come out, which was anything _but_.

"Hang on a minute here, we don't --- I -- don't want to change my body, I don't get why the rest of you are so gung ho on the idea, but first of all, we just got here, we don't know any of these people from adam, and second, this whole using another body thing doesn't sound too -- I mean, Boss, I'm a little shocked I guess is the word, you ain't got any serious problems with this? If not ....why not?! And Reno, you ain't thinkin' this out, are you? Not at all. Do you know these people? _Really _know them?"

This was _insane_.

Batshit insane.

Looking at Reno, Rude felt the odd glittering heat of anger and frustration, mingled with unhappiness at the failure, as he saw it, of any of them to stop and actually think here. This was, at the very best, new and very uncharted territory, and they were willing enough to explore here. He wasn't, and if that went down badly, tough shit, this was not in the Turk book of Prime Directives -- not anywhere he had seen. 

Tsu'Tey pursed his lips as he stared at Jake, knowing that in the end he wouldn't have any choice but to do as he was being asked, but he didn't want to give in so easily. He very much still held a grudge against Jake for taking Neytiri from him, and depriving him of his rightful place at the head of the Tribe, though Neytiri had willingly chosen Jake, which was something that should have changed things, but didn't. Not for the warrior. He pushed past Jake and made his way towards Grace, offering his services to her, and ignoring the other for the time being. He knew he would be in trouble for it later, but he wasn't feeling exactly charitable towards the humans, having had his fill of the Avatars back when Jake and Grace had been in the program, and not true Na'vi, thanks to Mother Ewah.

Shaking her head, Neytiri sighed as she made her way over to Jake, resting a hand on his chest as she looked him over, "Let him be. He still lets the flame flicker for me, when he knows it is unhealthy." She glanced back at her once-Intended, then back to her lifemate, "He does not understand that sometimes things, and people, can change. Not yet, at least. I have a feeling that these people will be good for him, whether he will admit it or not."

Cid followed after Vincent, heading over to where Cloud was still looking around confusedly, though he'd at least stopped clawing at the masks they were forced to wear. "Yeah, yeah I know Vince." He murmured, watching as the older man started to check on the blonde swordsman. He wasn't sure how to approach the other now of what the crash had jolted him into realizing, but he figured there was time enough later, after they'd gotten settled in some before he said anything.

Rufus nodded as Tseng spoke to him, giving a little wiggle as he used to do when he was a child and the other asked him if he was okay after having an accident of some kind, "Perfectly fine, aside from the headache, but that's to be expected, what with the way we were all tossed about inside that tin can, and the rather abrupt halt we came to when we reached the surface." He sighed, shaking his head, "I need to get started making diplomatic greetings with those in charge of this place, since it appears we may be stuck here for a while yet."

Rude's objection drew Reno up short, as his rattled mind began to come back into some frame of logical reference. He'd been looking at it _solely_ from the point of view of _not_ being trapped in a crippled body when he was normal an energetic and vital person. He hadn't truly been thinking it _through_, which under the circumstances wasn't really all that much of a surprise. He was still extremely rattled and shaken up, not thinking very clearly at all. Still, even with that sudden sharp taking up of his senses, the desire for the chance was still very, very much there. "You're right, partner, in that we shouldn't trust them right away, we should explore and examine to be _sure_ about this. But answer me this, and if you can honestly say no, I'll leave it be, right here and now. If it were _you_ in my position, after having been told that in the body you were _born_ into that you would never walk again, as vital and active as you _know_ I am, but you had a chance, in another body that not only _looked_ like yours, created with your _own_ dna, that was bigger and stronger than your own body to boot, to walk again, wouldn't you want to take that chance?"

He could see Rude getting ready to protest, and held up a hand that indicated that he wanted to be able to _finish_ his thought without being interrupted. "I'm not saying do it right now, not without checking it out, not without exploring it and making _sure_ of it, I'm simply saying to keep a damn open _mind_ about the opportunity instead of just dismissing it out of hand and accepting being stuck in a fucking wheelchair as your lot when there _is_ another option." He _knew_ that what he was saying was quite likely to make Rude mad, but he was simply speaking his point of view in his usual colorful manner.

Grace tensed. She had a feeling, if the dynamic between the two was what she suspected it was, that the situation was about to get pretty messy. The bald one actually reminded her somewhat of Tsu'tey, very no nonsense, and not trusting of things that he could not understand or explain right away, whereas the redhead reminded her of both Jake and herself, not afraid to speak his mind, and sometimes in a very brash and forward manner which got him misunderstood, and occasionally got him into trouble. _Eywa help us all_ she thought to herself _because we're going to need her help to sort through this after the argument I can just __**see**__ coming now._

Tseng had finally caught up with what Reno was having proposed to him, and he strode back over with almost silent stride, giving Reno a firm swat in the back of the head, not hard enough to do any further damage, but most certainly hard enough to get his attention. "I would think you were addled if I didn't know you as well as I do, Reno. But still, I must question your sanity in the matter now. Rude is attempting to watch _out_ for you, even if you do not _see_ it that way at the moment. It would behoove you to moderate your tone. I understand what it is you're trying to convey, but your delivery could use a bit of improvement."

Jake had come back in just in time to hear the last of the exchange and rolled his eyed with a groan. "Yeah, someone has definitely taken my place as the _sxkawng_ around here." he muttered, shaking his head. "Neytiri, do me a favor? Keep me from having my normal reaction of swatting idiots because the last thing I want to do is accidentally kill the guy, though I suspect we'd be putting him out of _all_ of our collective miseries." He had dealt with Neytiri in the same mood that Rude was currently in, and he _knew_ how messy this was likely to get in a very few moments.

Vincent instead of getting involved in or addressing this at all simply walked back over to Cid, sitting next to him. "I wished to speak to you about. . .us, and what it is you wish to make of such. I know this is not the most appropriate time for the discussion, but I'd much rather be involved with that than what is just about to happen inside once Rude fully takes in what Reno just said to him. I would rather be attending any other matter _but_ that."

Mo'at was barely able to get out a warning snap at her daughter before she saw the girl whirl around and stride over to Reno. Shaking her head, she could already feel the annoyance radiating from the young Queen, and knew that not even Jake would be able to stop her until she'd had her say. If there was anything that made it clear that they were mother and daughter, it was the way they reacted when they sensed an argument starting--both of them despised the feeling in the air when there was a disagreement, it unsettled them more than it did most, due to their emphatic personalities and their limited psychic abilities. 

"You would do _well_ to listen to those that know you _best_." The young woman crooned as she got near enough to Reno for him to hear her, her voice low and drawling, only because she still had difficulties with getting her tongue to contort the right way to speak Jake's native language. She waved her hands a bit, gesturing between the two, then at the others in the room, "You have only been injured a few hours, there is no rush to get back to the way you were. There is _always_ a reason for things, even if we do not _like _them, or _want _them to happen. Things that make us _open our eyes_ to things we _never_ would have seen otherwise." The wide yellow eyes narrowed for a moment as she looked Reno over, her lip curling slightly, though not from disgust. 

She looked up at Rude then, sizing him up, and her face gave away nothing of what she decided though the cursory once over, "You watch him carefully." She remarked, clearly for Rude, "You speak well, know what is smart, do not let him rush into things, not be _skxawng_." The harshness of the speech for the word they used for 'moron' would tell him that it wasn't a nice word at all, even if he had no idea what she meant. 

Rufus let out a snort at Neytiri's speech, lofting a brow at her before he looked to Rude, "Amazingly, as wary as I am of them, she does have a point. I need for you to look after Reno, Rude, because I need to try and find us a way to get home. If we can get home, then we may not even have to argue with him about this." His voice dropped low on the last part of the sentence, and he pulled Rude away slightly to finish speaking to him, "I see where he is coming from, being able to walk again and all, but we don't know if we can trust these people's technology in that regard. I'm wary to even ask if they have something capable of space travel, but this place is not our home, we were never meant to be here--we have to risk a little to get anywhere at this point. Watch him, as she said, and be sure he doesn't do anything drastic, as you know he is prone to doing, and let Tseng and I do what it is we do best." 

Cid blinked for a moment as he absorbed what Vincent was saying to him--and hearing the voices coming from around the injured Turk, he opted the same as Vincent had. It might not have been the most intelligent time to discuss things, but there was no better time than right then in his eyes, so that he didn't have to listen to the idiots going at one another. He gave the older man a sly grin, "Well, Vince, that'd be up t'you. You already know my take on it." He knew his rough and tumble behavior had often grated on the others nerves, but they had their times when they were able to just relax and talk, feeling the kinship between them that didn't always make sense, but it always felt right.

Rude, as angry as he was, had to admit that in Reno's position, he likely would feel the same, but still, his own natural cautious nature wouldn't allow him to admit to it. Certainly not this early in the game when he barely knew the people involved here at all. Then, it began to fully sink in with him what had really happened, his own bleary and shaken up mind absorbing it entirely and he shook his head, looking over at his partner, _fully_ taking the situation in, and it broke his heart, but he had to be strong for Reno's sake now. "Red, I understand your perspective here, I do. But it's not the time to make any rash decisions."

The admonishment, _much_ gentler than what Reno had expected, made him nod quietly. He knew that Rude was right as well, that leaping headfirst into things was not the wisest thing in the world. But that desire was still very much there, and he was not going to let go of it anytime soon. Something here _called_ to him, and though he didn't understand it yet, and likely wouldn't for a while, it was something that he did want to explore.

* * *

The fading sunlight cast strange shadows on the ground underneath the massive, willow-like tree, and the few woodsprites that hadn't gone roaming for the evening were coming down to rest on a trio of pale bodies that were propped up against the roots of the towering tree. The largest of the three stirred slightly, a quiet sound falling from his lips as he reached up unconsciously and swatted at the tentacled creatures that wouldn't stop trying to wake him up, the soft voices coming from within them each time they landed making him annoyed, though the tales they told filled him with a somewhat strange sense of sorrow.

Pale gold green eyes finally opened, and he sat up, looking around as he tried to figure out where he was. The last thing he actively remembered was the materia overload, and the death of 'toutou before he and Yazoo had followed after him. Something lighting on his head made him blink lazily, and he reached up, feeling the soft tingle of the fuzzy woodsprite tentacles on what felt like bald scalp. Alarmed at the childish thought of having no hair, he reached further up and ran his fingers over the top of his head, feeling that his normal hair was not longer there, but that it'd been replaced with a series of small braids surrounding one larger one--one that trailed down his back. Knitting his brows together, he reached for the end of the longest braid and held it up to his face, the tip of the hair falling away to reveal the waving neural endings that seemed to be reaching for something.

The woodsprite that had landed on his head floated up again, then descended, connecting with the neural endings of his braid, the sudden familiarity making him yelp loudly and jump, his back hitting the tree as the memories and the thoughts poured through his mind. The sensation of it left him breathless, and he was gasping by the time that they had disconnected, and he turned, looking at his siblings as the woodsprite moved to them, resting on each of them as well, seemingly beckoning them to awaken.

_M-Mother?_

Releasing the braid in his hand, it fell to the ground and connected to the tree itself, something that was starting to creep him out, as much as it fascinated him. _In a sense._ The ancient voice chuckled softly, _I am everyone's Mother, but your biological mother is the one trying to awaken you and your siblings. She has been waiting for you--we all have. You are home now, my Children, you are finally __**Home**__._

What.........................................

_was _this.

Yazoo awakened very slowly, the last thing burned in his mind the beautiful, horrible vision of Cloud killing them --- well -- trying to kill them.

His blade had been up and ready to deliver twinned death blows, yet the blast had come down on them all, taking all three lives at once in a cataclysm of exploding bodies. Yes, in the fragments before Yazoo had himself been fragmented, he remembered. Souls cast to the sky, green light intertwining as he and Loz yet accosted an unknowing Cloud for the murder of his little brother.

Cloud had ...gone somewhere else.

Been lost, after all that.

Oh god, that hurt so much. Yazoo had entertained the most reckless and foolish of fantasies and never spoken them, now it was too late, there was only hurt and anger and loss and Cloud ...oh god. Cloud had destroyed more than he knew, and he never would have cared. Cloud hated them, he had demonstrated that so very beautifully, hadn't he?

"Thinking about Blondie, right?! Knock it off, Yazoo! Isn't it bad enough he ------------------"

Kadaj stopped, sat up. And looked at Yazoo and Loz --- then himself.

"THE FUCK............?? is this .....our _punishment_??" 

Loz looked over at Kadaj, grinning a bit stupidly--not quite catching the edge to Kadaj's voice as he continued to listen to the calm voice that had been speaking to him before. "Mother's Mother is here, Kadajuu! Put the twisty thing on the ground, and she'll talk to you like she's talking to me! She said she's been waiting for us, that a lot of them have been waiting for us..." He blinked then, and saw what he thought to be the same Woodsprite heading to Kadaj, the wispy tentacles brushing over the pale blue skin before lighting on him. "Listen to it, 'toutou, let it talk to you. I'm not crazy, I swear! They talk to you!"

He stood up then, and the braid fell away from the connection between it and the tree, leaving him feeling oddly...empty. He looked around, fascinated by the glow that was beginning to come from the long 'leaves' that hung from the branches of the tree, and the way they glowed brighter, or dimmed down if he was touching them, or not. Each step made him laugh with a child-like tone, because the ground under his feet would glow brighter as he stepped on it, then dim once he lifted up again. His mind wasn't quite catching up to the fact that he should be worried still, and that Kadaj was likely going to throw a fit of some kind soon, he just knew that everything was new, and he liked it _so_ much more than he had liked Gaea--he wanted to keep this planet, maybe enslave whoever was there, if anyone was there really, and keep it for he and his brothers.

The commotion behind him made him pause, and he turned, lofting a brow when he saw Yazoo and Kadaj scuffling on the ground. The scream, somehow, had been missed, thanks to the haze he was in, but the sound of a fight would be something he'd hear no matter if he was passed completely out. "...Really?" He scratched his head, not sure if he should break them up, or if it was smarter to let them just get it all out, so there was a longer break between times they ended up arguing.

"Get OFF me, bitch!"

Kadaj punched Yazoo full in the face, and then fell back some, looking at the _whateverthemotherfuck _was coming at him, coming too fucking close to him ----- "..goddamn it ....what IS that thing??! LOZ, shut up, shut up, stop _babbling _that crap~!"

Mother??!

Mother's.............. MOTHER?!! How insane was all this?!! Cloud ....goddamned _cunting _Cloud. Kadaj had lain in his arms, and Cloud had watched him die --- watched him _cry_-- and not said a freaking word to comfort him. Nothing, not a thing--- and then the bitch that hadn't been Mother, the bitch that had been someone else entirely, had lied to him --- had deceived him --- deceived them _all _--- Lies, Lies!! -- they had come here instead, and maybe this was what the humans called Hell.

The place of demons and evil hearted Ghosts.

Oh, he would get back to Big Brother.

And he would teach him all about family.

Yazoo was sent reeling, and then sat up, dazed, baffled, scared. Kadaj was, as usual, no help, but the terror was raw, violent and sickening....what had happened to all of them, what was this strange place and this strange ....everything. That lady had spoken to them, yet now there was a new lady, and her voice was more coaxing, far less .... what was the word? Kind? No, she sounded kind, loving, really, actually.

"Kadaj..................................................?........Mother...?"

"NO! NOT MOTHER! Don't listen to Loz, he's mentally fucked, you oughta know that!!"

"But??..."

"NO!!"

"Kadaj, what------------"

"SHUT UP!!!"

Yazoo obeyed, and stood, shaking. And said not one more word.

Did not dare. 

"BUT IT REALLY IS MOTHER'S MOTHER!" Loz yelled, annoyed that Kadaj wasn't even going to listen at all, that he was just going to pass it off as him being messed in the head. He knew what he was talking about! "She told me she was! Just LISTEN to her, 'toutou, you'll see that I'm not being stupid about this!" He pouted, looking to Yazoo, "Just set your twisty-thingy on the ground, and she's _there_. I dunno why, but she is! She said that they've been waiting for us." He reached over and ran his hand down one of the glowing wisps hanging from the tree, not sure why he did so, though the quiet whisper of voices made him jump slightly, and jerk his hand away. "It's like they're in the TREE." He blinked, looking towards the massive trunk, "....but people can't be in trees.....can they?"

He heard a noise behind him, and he turned, wilting instantly when he caught the look on Kadaj's face. He should have known better than to yell at Kadaj, he should have just left it alone and let him find out on his own, but he didn't like being told he wasn't right when he knew he was. He waited a second, then saw how his little brother's face flushed almost _chartreuse_, and he turned towards the forest and _bolted_. He'd made the mistake of staying around when Kadaj turned a shade of almost crimson that his face would have been had they still had that snow pale skin in his anger, and he wasn't making that mistake twice. If ever there was a time he truly feared for his life around his little brother, it was then, and for good reason. The trailing tendrils from the tree they'd awakened under brushed over his skin as he made his way towards the forest nearby, the ghosting laughs from whatever or whoever was contained within it echoing in his mind before it cut off abruptly once he was away from the tendrils and into the smaller trees.

From the opposite side of the clearing where Loz had run, a large creature settled in, getting ready to make its move when the chance was right. It wasn't often that he found a pair of twoleggers that were lax enough to leave their back unprotected, nor did they look to be near as strong as the other blue twoleggers that had always been around. All four eyes blinked, then focused on them even more, the long tail lashing quietly through the air behind him as he crouched, low to the ground, and waited for them to lose any sense of what was around them.

"LOZ!!"

Yazoo had gotten to his feet, but shakily so, now, the aftereffect of Kadaj's angry attack was still something to not be so quickly recovered from-- really, for his age and size, their little brother was like a small nuclear bomb, lethal and merciless, striking with warnings concise and clear, but never hedged on. If you pushed Kadaj, if you insisted on doing so, you'd pay the price, and depending on his level of sanity at the time, it might only be a broken bone, a deep wound, or he might take it a little farther. He might also take it a lot farther, and you really had no one to blame but yourself if that happened.

"Loz, come back! Damn it .............Kadaj, I ... "

No.

No, no, no.

Yazoo shut up. He had already incurred the wrath, and he wasn't going to go farther --- and this was when Kadaj had to handle it, when he had to not just play leader but be leader, when he had to get out there and draw Loz back in, bring him home to them again.

_Alive_.

_Motherfucker. _

_Cunt._

_Cocksucking douchebag comewad whorefucker snatchhole._

The niceties poured forth from Kadaj's angelic, childlike lips, and he snarled an evil, rage filled rumble of pure malignancy in the direction Loz had fled the black wrath that was now -- fully-- coming into its own. How dare the big motherfucking cunt take off and make things that much more difficult, dangerous, and complicated, than it all already was -- and it already was sucking cock, it already had them by the short hairs and was tangling and tugging. They were fucked to the nth degree as it was, and Loz --- Loz dared, oh god, he dared to do this.

God or something had better help him.

"Get your _cunting _ass back here, now!! If I have to chase you, Loz, as much shit is in the fire right now, as it is, I am going to cripple you. That is a promise, from me to you. Think about it, and then make a decision." This was called out, and Kadaj waited, his heart thundering in the effort of his mad rage.

"I'll _kill _him."

Creeping slowly forward, the lizard-like creature grinned to itself when it felt the shift in the air. The concentration on their surroundings was gone, and that was exactly the moment it had been waiting for. One swift thrust of the powerful back legs, and the six-legged beast landed directly behind Kadaj, towering over the smallest of the remnants, the gaping maw wide open as it unleashed a hellish sound, deep and primal in nature. It was hungry, and these two looked delectable, utterly so. Better than the other two legs that had once roamed around the forest, and definitely better than the blue beasts that annoyed it so much.

The multiple eyes whirled and blinked simultaneously, and finally pinned Kadaj's as it stared down at him, the thick saliva dripping as it continued to breath heavily on him, nostrils flared. The neck spikes stood out fully, the feelers on the ends flickering around, one reaching for Yazoo as it breathed hard, slowly closing the distance between it and Kadaj.

The roar echoed through the forest, and Loz stopped in his track, his mind immediately flicking into protection mode. His brothers were back there, and something was with them--he couldn't let anything happen to them, no matter how angry Kadaj was with him. Turning back around, he started the mad-cap run back, wishing then more than ever that he still had the Haste materia, since his natural speed might not be enough. The adrenaline helped him, as did the fact that he hadn't been nearly as far away as he'd thought he'd been, and he made it there in time to see the massive creature lowering its head at Kadaj.

"_'toutou!_"

\

"_Cocksucker_..."

Kadaj snarled with all the hate and fire he could summon, seeing this new and very clearly monumental threat to them all, glowering down at him with a look that said it dared him to live, dared him to even try to resist its hunger. "Back off, _cuntrammer_." The words were brave and foul and fell, but it was all he had. No, not quite .. Yazoo came to his side, and they looked to Loz, now gasping as he finally made it there, the three of them all now looking in unison to their latest and perhaps... most _terrible _enemy ever.

Death of a sort most pointless and ugly was staring them all in the face, and Kadaj suddenly had a grotesque moment of complete loss. No weapons, no materia, no .....anything. Only Loz's maddening and confusing claims and pleas about Mother's presence and powers there, and that was not helping. She was not helping, no one and nothing was helping. They stood alone, and of that, he was very certain, very, sickeningly certain.

But hadn't they before?

Yes.

Yes of course but ........

Now it was different, and Kadaj rallied, that last second before it really would have been the last of all, and he looked to the others. "If we die today again, we die on our terms. I don't have any intentions on dying without taking Niisan with us, this time ..he's going to fucking pay ... so ...we either get away from this thing, or we kill it. What do you two say?"

Asking their opinion? .............? _Really_?!! ...

Yazoo inclined his beautiful head at the youngest, and then to Loz, but before there was more to be spoken or even contemplated, the creature attacked, unwilling perhaps to wait and see what the prey had in mind for self defense. Yazoo made a snarling yowl, and he and Loz shoved the Baby out of the way, as the great teeth of the beast found Yazoo's leg and there was a sound of mad horror ..bone being crushed, and worse.

"LOZ .................................................!!....."

Moving fast, before the creature had a chance to try and drag Yazoo away from them, Loz would later be grateful of the innate natural strength he held within those well-muscled limbs, the oldest of the three slammed into the shoulder of the beast, all the while yelling for Kadaj to get Yazoo, to get him away from the creature while he handled it. It wouldn't be easy, not by a long shot, but he wasn't a weak man, nor was he the type to fear rushing in where angel's feared to trod--his family was in danger, and that was something that came first above all else.

The beast let out a roar to rival that of Bahamut when it was slammed into, the actions making it release Yazoo as it turned it fury onto Loz. It squared up to the two-legger and lowered its head, preparing to end this fast and easy, when it noticed that it wasn't in front of him anymore, but off to the side of him. One set of eyes narrowed as it glared at the two legger, not liking how the thing moved so quickly, and wasn't afraid of him. It let out another roar and leapt at Loz, landing with a crash in front of him, posturing itself so that it appeared even bigger as it stared him down.


	2. Author's note

Author's note: Yes, I know, I left chapter one on a cliffhanger. XD I enjoy doing that every once in a while, and now that I finally have this plotted, and know how to get from here to the end without this being difficult, I will probably actually FINISH this one.

Now, to explain a few things about this fic for those of you who may be familiar with one fandom, but not the other, or vice versa. I intended this to be a vision of self exploration and of redemption for the Final Fantasy VII crew, a chance to see just what they had lost, what had been destroyed, and possibly getting a chance to repair the damage to their own world using what they had learned.

The remnants especially this is supposed to be an opportunity for redemption for. I always felt that the three were misunderstood, not truly villains but simply ones that were driven by their own instincts and had not really had a chance to be free, and it reminded me so much of the Na'Vi themselves, how they were always misunderstood, and it inspired a flash of "what if" that shaped their roles here.

I changed two key elements in the movie, and they are necessary to the development of the plot. One of those was that Grace Augustine, much like in the original Project 800 script, survived her trip through the Eye of Eywa and made it into her Avatar body. The other was that Tsu'tey survived the battle at Hometree, the circumstances of that occurrence which shall be explained later in the story.

There are also several original characters in this story. One is Eryn, who is Reno's mother in this story. I have written him here as being half-Cetra, which is also a key element of the plot that will come into play later. Eryn is fully Cetra, but she plays more of a cameo role here than a main role. The other is Rah'mi, the young Na'vi boy. He will play a larger role in things, which you will see later down the road.


	3. Chapter 3

The three, even in these new bodies, worked in harmony as they always had, though it was Loz doing most of the fighting, the brows drawn down together as he used those fists that even with the body naturally being more slender and wiry than what he was used to were big, meaty, and much stronger than one would think. Two blows, using all of his strength, were delivered to the creature's nose. Loz hoped it was enough, because he wasn't certain he could outrun it, even on his own, and he sure had no plans to leave his brothers behind. "Go, Kadaj! Go _now_!" The tone had an authoritative edge to it, and the eldest of the three had a sneaking suspicion Kadaj would take him to task for it later, but right now his main priority was saving their lives.

The Palulukan merely blinked all four of its great eyes as those fists came down on its nose, its brain slowly trying to accommodate the fact that these creatures were a _lot_ stronger than it had given them credit for as the pain of the hits filtered down into its awareness. It was at least momentarily stunned, and by the time it gathered its wits about it again to give chase, its meal had escaped into the underbrush and disappeared from sight, and though it could follow their scent trail, it also knew there were far easier meals to be had in the jungle that didn't fight back as hard as this one had. Sometimes it was wiser to give up for easier food than to give into one's pride.

Loz as soon as they stopped running knelt next to Yazoo, checking on his leg. It wasn't broken, but there were two sets of deep puncture wounds where the creature had buried its teeth into the flesh. "Kadaj, I need something to tie this up with." He muttered when one of those small fists banged into the back of his head. "What was that for?"

"You need to clean the wound out first, moron." Kadaj snapped, walking over to the nearby stream, gesturing Loz to carry Yazoo over to it, knowing the middle brother was likely to complain about the temperature of the water, but it was better than getting an infection that would likely be fatal, especially when they didn't know any of the fauna here to know which ones might be handy as antibiotics. Kadaj thought about things like that, being the leader as he was, he was used to taking into account things that the other two often didn't.

Loz scowled and held onto Yazoo tightly as he set the most slender of the three into the water, steeling himself for the howl he was almost certain was to come when his brother hit the water. And howl Yazoo did indeed, trying to scramble out as the icy fluid splashed around him. "Idiot, oaf! Let _go _of me! This is like the very ice of the North itself!" As intelligent as Yazoo was, he was in shock to some extent, and the cold water roused his temper, as he really wasn't fond of the cold as it was.

Once they finally got the wound cleaned out and wrapped, they curled up into a tree, and went into what was a state almost essentially of hibernation, one from which they would not wake for a long while, and while they slept, it was with dreams of Pandora flitting through their brains.

By the time a month had passed, Reno had begun to become accustomed to getting around in the wheelchair, though he _loathed_ it horribly. He was currently sitting and looking out the window of the compound inside Hellsgate, his eyes distant. Rude had finally allowed him to explore the option of taking on an avatar, though he still would not allow Grace to make one for himself, the big man not at all comfortable with the idea of staying on Pandora, though it was beginning to look as if there was no way to get home, and that they were, for the moment, stuck here. Today, however, was the day that he went to check on the avatar that was finally grown to the point that it _looked _like a person, and his curiosity was almost overwhelming.

A squawk sounded when he reached the tank, though, one which would tell the others with him that things. . . .weren't quite as they should be. "Grace, this fuckin' Avatar is a _chick_, yo! She looks like me, I bet she comes pretty close ta soundin' like me, but she's a damn chick! What th'_hell_ happened?" Reno's voice sounded more stunned than aggrieved, after all, to be able to walk again, even with an unwanted gender change, made this worth his while, he just hadn't been expecting this.

Grace had the well, _grace_ to look sheepish as she strode over to where he was, blue tail tip twitching. "Uh, yeah. ..that. I knew there was something I was forgetting. Something about your genetic structure tripped up the computer, and I'm not entirely certain what. You're. . .not entirely human, are you?" The question had a probing tone to it as she pinned his blue green eyes with her own.

That drew identical snorts from Eryn and Neytiri both, the two women looking at each other with identical expressions as well. The new Tsahik of the Omaticaya and the Cetra woman had become close friends over the past month, and it sometimes spooked Reno and Jake both out how much the two women thought alike. "And this would be why I say that sometimes you should look before you leap, little _sxkawng_." This time the word had a nearly affectionate tone to it, however, as Neytiri shook her head and tried not to laugh.

Tsu'tey, however, did not have such restraint, and the warrior let out rolling peals with his head tossed back, his queue and the smaller braids around making a rustling sound as his body shook with the sounds. "Oh. ..it is funny. . .not that you do not look enough like a woman to pass even in that body, but for your Dreamwalker body to be one. . .it is hilarious."

Reno growled at Tsu'tey, and it was fairly obvious that if he _could_ have launched himself at the warrior and hit him, he would have. As vain as the redhead could be, he was also enormously sensitive about his size and his slender body, even as much of an advantage as it lent him in his work, though Tsu'tey could in no way _know_ that. His somewhat feminine looks had gotten him in trouble more than once, as well as getting him sent on some of the less than savory missions, and he didn't like people commenting on it at all. "I do _not_ look like a woman."

Neytiri could not help but roll her eyes. Tsu'tey had this horrid habit of not knowing when to simply keep his mouth shut, and it got him in as much trouble as Reno's own lithe frame got _him, _ and she did not feel like extricating the warrior from the situation now. "Do not be a _sxkawng_ yourself, Tsu'tey. You would do well to learn some diplomacy, as it is one quality you very much lack." The girl was still one of the few who could get away with saying such a thing to the one who would have been clan chief had things fallen differently.

Tsu'tey scowled, and turned to storm out, his mouth tight and his lips thinned in a way that said trouble would be down the road if things were not sorted soon.

"_I find myself falling more in love with this place every day. Like Jake, it's startin' to get to where I don't know th'difference between the dream and th'reality anymore, and though it should disturb me, an' I know it should, it doesn't. My Avatar's not fully grown yet, but I've been trainin' to use th'link chambers, learning how ta make things move, how to connect usin' a computer program. This world is lush, s'beauiful in a way that Gaia hasn't been in a long time, and it calls ta me." _

The video journal played from the back of the lab as Rude came out to find his partner with his head laid out on the keyboard of his terminal, fast asleep. The bald man shook his head with a sigh, lifting the slender body up into his arms. "This was why I didn't want you to do this, Red." he whispered, using the nickname for Reno that had become his exclusive domain. "You get into a thing like this, you don't eat, you don't sleep, and you lose yourself in it."

Tseng watched from the doorway, not speaking for several long moments, and when he did, it was the same words of wisdom that had always been the Turk Director's stock in trade. "It is and has always been his way, Rude. You know this, as I do. He is a man who throws his whole heart into a thing when he chooses to do it, and right now, this is his best and brightest hope for being able to regain his legs. Of course he is going to do all in his power to make it happen."

The slender body was laid out on Reno's bed before Rude just sighed, his hands coming up to rub over the top of his bald head, and when he pulled h is sunglasses off and laid them aside, how tired and troubled he was would make itself obvious. "I know, Boss, I know that. I don't want to lose my partner to this place, though. From what I've heard from some of the scientists this world swallows you whole, and when it does you never want to go home. You become. . .almost addicted to it."

"Is that such a bad thing? We could stand to learn things from this place, Rude. You and I both know what half of Reno's heritage is, and it should neither shock nor surprise you that he would become addicted to a place that is much as Gaia was before ShinRa sullied and corrupted it." Tseng's tone was gentle. He understood Rude's misgivings, and he understood that at least some of them were from the big bald man's unresolved and unrevealed emotions for the man who now slept so deeply after a long day of training. "How much of it is your fear for him, however. ..and how much of it is your fear of losing his heart? If you speak up. . .you may find that sharing him with Pandora is not near so frightening as you believe it to be."

Rude shook his head with a quiet chuckle. "You know me way too well, Tseng. . .you can read me like a book. I can't speak up this time, though. You know it, and so too do I. There's far too much at stake for me to speak up now and have him resent me for the rest of his life for taking from him what he wants so very desperately. It wouldn't be fair, no matter how badly I want to."

* * *

* * *

When awareness began to return to the slender middle remnant after his long period of hibernation, Yazoo realized he was tucked inside the same tree where they had fallen asleep, and as his queue dropped onto the ground, he could hear the faint laughter of the spirits within the forest, and in his sleepy and half aware state, he had to smile. The trees and the animals gave the man a sense of peace, unlike anything he'd ever felt before.

_My child. . .I have missed you so. I am back where I belong, and much happier for it. For you to be where you belong changes everything, my son. Believe me, it does. That place that we were before, we did not belong there. I was a warrior, yes, but I was meant to live in communion with the nature of this world, not the slave of the man on that other world of cities where people are cut off from the flow of the energy of life. _

Yazoo closed his eyes, communing with that voice, whispering out "Mother" as he waited for the other two to wake up. The feelings and images he was getting from the one whom they had called Jenova back on Gaia told him much. She had been a great warrior, a Tsahik, three thousand years before, before her spirit had been tossed out into space, trapped inside a body that was living and yet dead, changed into something that it had never been designed to be.

_When I woke on that world, my mind, my heart, twisted, became. . .__keye'ung. . .insane, evil. I was not for that place. You were never meant to do the things that you have done. I have learned, from seeing what my people have done since I have been gone from here, that not all humans are wicked, that some do have hearts that have honor, that do not fear. That is the lesson I want for you and your brothers to learn. For you will need the help of the ones who were once your enemies to defeat the enemy that is coming. Without their help. . .all of this world will die._

"But Mother. . .these humans hurt our brother. . . .how can we work with them? How can we fight at their sides, how can trust them?" Yazoo looked skeptical, but after all that had happened, it was not that surprising.

_The sins of the father are not the sins of the son, my child. That is something you will very soon discover. The sins against your brother were ultimately the father's sins. . .that is something I myself forgot in my anger. _

A light moan signaled Kadaj and Loz awakening, and as she spoke to them, she gave them her true name. _I was Eyrina then. I was Tsahik, shamaness of my people and I was great in the spirit and in the body, until the Sky People, the humans, took part of what I was, changed it, twisted it into what it was never meant to be. I was sent out into space, to take other lands for them, to change those lands, so that they may harvest those lands for their resources as well. The Cetra are sister and brother to our people, and two among these humans have the blood of those people. _

"Mother, as much as we want to believe what you say, as sweet as the dreams you're trying to send us are. . .it breaks my heart to bend my pride in such a way. Treat. . .with humans? I would ask if you were crazy, but I know better." Kadaj paced, his pride warring with wanting to believe what the spirit of the one he had known as Mother was telling him.

_Not all humans are the same, my young one. This is something that in time you will learn. The humans that you fought before, they were only protecting the land that they loved and called their own. They were not the aggressors. It took me coming home to see that. It is something that in time you will see as well._

* * *

Grace was pacing as the communiques came in from Earth, a scowl on her face. "I'm going to have to accelerate the growth of your Avatar, Turk Boy. The RDA reinforcements are already on their way, they're going to be here in 6 months. Somehow or another they got their hands on faster than light technology, which shrinks the trip between Earth and Pandora from five years to one. So we're going to need your Avatar asap. If there's anyone else who wants one grown, speak now or hold your peace."

Elena had been quiet through all of the planning, through the majority of her Sempai's training, watched him struggle with the language, and with the customs of the people, but it was Norm Spellman that had caught her eye, in a way that not even Jake had, though the Olo'eyktan had fascinated her when she had arrived. She stepped forward now, though, her eyes firm and determined. "I want an Avatar, Grace. I want to fight at the side of those who would be my family."

Rah'mi looked up, his brows dropping, scrunching together as he tilted his head. He had just gotten his Ikran three days before, but he too had been watching the man who looked so much like he did. The teen had watched him struggle with his disability, to learn to get around without his legs, and had gotten to know him. He admired Reno now, and referred to him as _Tse'mukan, _though not in front of Tsu'tey. The one who had become right hand man to his olo'eyktan over the past year and a half had developed a great dislike of the redhead, though Rah'mi did not understand why.

"He is much like Jake." was Neytiri's answer when Rah'mi asked her why. "Tsu'tey has much pride, a strong heart and a great spirit. Jake does too, and when two who have strong hearts do not see eye to eye, there is great strife. They clash, as he and Jake clashed, because they both are very proud people. But there is something there, something. . .that even Jake did not have, and Tsu'tey does not like to admit that a human has the ability to _see_. Your Tse'mukan, though. . .he does see."


	4. Chapter 4

Rah'mi nodded quietly, then looked down, seeming to drop into thought. "I want to be like him, Neytiri. I want to be brave and strong of heart like him."

Tsu'tey growled, then spun on Rah'mi, great golden eyes narrowed at the corners. "There is no glory in being like him. He is only a human, and a crippled human at that. What is the glory in that?" and with those words, Tsu'tey spun on his heels and strode from the room, slamming the door so hard behind him that the nearest link chamber rose up from the pedestal it stood on and then slammed back down with a clatter.

Reno jumped at the sound, he'd been so deeply in thought as he stared at the body floating in the tank. It was the size of a five year old child, and as he settled a hand on the tank, he felt his mother come up behind him and set a hand on his shoulder, her lips drawn up into a slight smile. Eryn remembered those years better than she really would have liked to.

"She looks a lot like you did at five. . .even if she is clearly not human, I see you in her face, in the sloping chin, in the high cheekbones, the full lips, and the noble forehead. But that is only the physical, and I know I won't truly see until you are in that body whether it suits you or not. There were times that I wished you'd been born a girl, if only to free you from the confusion as you realized that you had very little interest in women at all, though you acted promiscuous to hide it from the remainder of the world. In a better world, you would have been free to love and live as you wished without shame." Eryn's tone was musing as she spoke.

Reno turned, pinning her eyes with his own, then shook his head. "In a better world, Momma, it wouldn't have mattered. But it wasn't a better world, and it was somethin' I learned to live with, 'cause I never had a choice. Now people are comin' here, comin' to destroy what I just found, and I don't know where my loyalties should be anymore. I've been an employee of ShinRa since I was sixteen, and we both know what that means. They almost destroyed Gaia, an' for what? For a few years of ease and prosperity? I ain't gonna let 'em do that here, Momma. I can't. What kind of honor would I have left if I did?"

"That's a question only you can answer, Renny. And when you have the answer to that question, then you'll know what to do." and with those words Eryn stepped out, leaving her son to think things through and decide for himself which side he would take. She knew this was going to be a hard choice for him to make, and he would have to figure it out on his own. Any influence any way or another would only make the decision harder.

As she walked away, Reno looked out the window, and his mind soared back to the first time he'd _truly _seen Pandora's beauty, from the cockpit of a dragonfly when Jake had welcomed him to accompany him to the ceremony where Neytiri would announce the coming of the clan's next Tsahik or olo'eyktan, depending on whether the coming child was a boy or a girl.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////flashback////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

"I heard you were a pilot, and I need someone to fly Neytiri and I back into the forest. There's a ceremony at our clan's home, you see, where because I'm the olo'eyktan and Neytiri is the Tsahik where we will announce the conception of our first child. It's an official thing, so yeah, I can't get out of this." Jake scratched the back of his head, a habit he'd never quite managed to kick.

"But-" Reno started to protest that due to his own disabilities he couldn't fly, only to have Jake shove a hand out to quiet him. He waited then, waited to see what the tribe chief had to say to him.

"I know you're going to say you can't fly, but no worries. This Samson. . .well, I had it outfitted a while back when Trudy complained she had trouble reaching the pedals on the normal one. It's got all hand controls. As long as you can get into the seat, you'll be able to fly just fine." Of course Jake was not going to tell Reno, for the sake of sparing his pride, that he'd outfitted the craft just for the red haired pilot, but he was pretty sure, if the cagy look the man gave him was any indication, that he already knew.

"Ok, then. . .not a problem." The smile was quiet, yet it was heartfelt, spreading across the entire face of the young redhead. To fly again was something that Reno was not going to turn down, even if he knew Jake had done this especially so he could. Inside, he was thanking Jake for his thoughtfulness, though it was thoughtfulness he had learned to expect from the one man here who knew intimately how he was feeling.

The view through his windscreen was not one Reno would ever forget. Everything was so green, the sky was bluer than anything he'd ever seen before in his life, and even though he'd been warned about the dangers, by Jake, who had been here before, who had known them intimately, all he could see of it was the beauty.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////end flashback///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Reno drew himself out of his thoughts, and shook his head. His hands went to the shards of the sunglasses Rude had been wearing when the rocket crashed, the broken pieces forming back together in his hands, and he thought of them as a symbol of his life. _If I can put the pieces of these broken glasses back together, they won't be as strong as before, there will still be cracks where they shattered. . .but they will at least be whole enough to use again. Maybe. . .just maybe. .. there's a chance I can do that with my life, even as hard as it is. _

That thought gave him a hope he hadn't had before,

Two more weeks passed, and the avatar was matured to the size of a well grown 16 year old. Still not adult, but big enough and strong enough to do what had to be done. As the body was decanted, Reno gave a soft and shaky laugh as he looked back at Grace. "So, how'd ya get used to the change in hair color? Red suits us, ya know? I didn't hafta see the old photos of you that Jake had ta know that you were a redhead, ya got that spirit, that fire about ya."

Grace shrugged, but at the same time she was smiling. "About the same way I got used to not smoking." she quipped, then set one of those big blue hands on his shoulder. "Somehow I have a feeling it's not the change in hair color that's bothering you, though." She gave the joint under her hand a quick squeeze. "You're wondering how your friends are going to handle the change. . .your partner. . .he's come to accept that you're going to do this, whether he likes it or not, but he's still pissed off as Hell at you, and you can tell it, right?"

A nod was Reno's only response before he peered out the window toward the forest. "Yeah. .. Rude's. . .well, he's pissed off as all get out. He thinks I'm stupid. . .what was that word Tsu'tey used? _Skxawng_. Yeah, he thinks I'm a sxkawng for doing this. But he doesn't understand. I don't know if he can. It's not just about getting my legs back, though Goddess knows that's one Hell of an incentive. No. . .there's something about this world. Something. . .that so very few could really understand unless they've made themselves a part of it." His hand ghosted across the glass, the barrier making the land seem so near, and yet so far. "And that's what I want. . .more than anything in the world. To make myself a part of it."

"You'll be able to take your avatar out tomorrow. . .then you'll be able to see if you really can make yourself a part of it." Grace's voice was gentle as she pushed him back toward his bed. "But for now, get yourself some sleep. You're going to need it. Oh, and word of advice?" and a smile flickered up around the corners of the blue lips.

"Yeah, what's that?" Reno quirked a brow, suspecting that he was just about to get teased, but hey, from Grace he could deal with it, because that was usually her way, and the two were kindred spirits of a sort, even if she tended to drive him a little crazy at times.

"Try not to run into a Thanator." and she turned the bed down for him, watching him try not to crack up as he laid down into the bed. "Lights out, _skxwang._ We bounce at 0800 tomorrow, and you're going to need all the rest you can get."

Rude woke to the sounds of people banging on metal, rattling medical implements, and Norm loading a rifle from the other side of the link chamber, getting it ready for their excursion. He'd been very quiet, not sure what to say to his red haired partner at this point. He knew Reno was dead set on what he was going to do, and there was nothing the big bald man was going to do that would stop him, even if he wished something he said would change the slender Turk's mind. "How do those left behind cope?" he asked Norm in a yearning tone. "He's fallen in love with this place, just like Jake did, and I'm losing him to it. I don't know what else I can do."

Norm just gripped a hand on his shoulder in sympathy. "There's a saying, Rude, from my world. It applies here really, and it's the best advice I can give you. 'If you love someone, let them go. If they come back to you, they belong to you. If they don't, they never were.'"

Once breakfast had been served, a couple of frozen entrees, Reno was preparing himself to link with his avatar for the first time. Grace had already let him practice with the link chambers, training him how to link with the avatar body. He knew she had watched the way he had struggled with the loss of his independence, with the ability to do for himself to the same extent that he was used to, seen the nights that he had cursed as he had fallen when he'd first been paralyzed, and had pushed himself back up, then had cried when he'd thought no one could see. She understood why he couldn't let this go.

"Just clear your mind, try to let the troubles of the day just float away." Grace's advice was nodded at as the lid to the link chamber closed. Reno had to fight off a bit of claustrophobia at first, until finally he took a deep breath, closing his eyes. There was a sensation as if he was being pulled free of his broken body, then of movement, and after he heard voices.

"Ren, open your eyes, Flyboy." came the warm voice, the words followed by a tease as the big gold-green eyes fluttered open. "Or should I say flygirl?" Dr. Augustine's voice held that tone of amusement that Reno had come to know too well over his time training to use the avatar and waiting for it to be ready.

"Very friggin' funny." and when Reno sat up, and spoke for the first time, he noticed that the voice was a rich, deep alto, as if it had not been able to decide between the mezzo soprano tones of his own mother's voice or the tenor of his own. "Well, at least I don't sound all _that_ much different. Grace, hand me a mirror." As she did, he looked into it, seeing the bone structure as if for the first time, even if he'd watched it grow. Seeing this body as himself, in a mirror, for the first time was a marvel. The sloping forehead was still there, as were the full lips, though they were rendered in the pale blue of the Na'Vi instead of his normal pale pink. The tattooed scars beneath his eyes were not, but that was all right. The biggest change to get used to were those eyes, round and large, a deep greenish yellow that did not look at all like his own. The second biggest, as he'd expected, was the dark hair that had already been braided into cornrows shortly after the body had been decanted.

"I'm not even going to argue with you about trying to stand up, after my experiences with Jake, I know better than to even try." Grace gave a short barking laugh as Jake shot her an aggrieved look. "Don't even try to deny it, Sully. You're one of the most stubborn people I had ever had the _displeasure_ of meeting."

"I'm not that bad, Grace, for Eywa's sake." Jake muttered, shaking his head. "Just because I wouldn't let the doctors keep me pinned down to a gurney for several hours running sensory motor tests that wouldn't tell them anything that me getting up and running a little wouldn't anyway."

Norm was doing his best not to laugh at the two, Grace and Jake always picked on each other, as if they were brother and sister, it was what they had done almost since the day they had met, and he doubted that would ever change. "I'm going in." he told Grace, glad now that they had been able to repair his avatar after the battle at Hell's Gate where it had been shot.

Reno quirked a brow at Grace, then did indeed climb to shaky feet, almost falling as he attempted to get accustomed not only to the fact that the body did not have joints in the way a human body did, but to the lower center of gravity associated with being female, but he gamely clung to his feet, gripping the wall a moment before his knees stopped shaking, and the walk became a run, a whoop sounding from the exercise yard as he hit the wall running, hands grabbing onto the rope on the climbing wall as Reno scrambled up it like a spider, tail tip twitching as he sat on top of it with a shit eating grin.

"Now _this_ is more fucking like it!"


	5. Chapter 5

_The femininity of the avatar took a bit of getting used to, and not just because it has a lower center of gravity, longer legs, and wider hips. I feel things. . .that I never did bein' a guy, even with another guy. I'm confused as Hell, an' I'm not sure what I can do about it. I can't believe I'm __**attracted **__ to the one I've found myself attracted to. The bastard hates me, and I know he does, for darin' ta think I'm worthy of bein' onea 'em. But he's got no choice but ta teach me, and he hates me for that too. _

_He calls me sxkawng still, and now that I know what it means, it stings even more, but fuck if I'm gonna tell him that. Fuck no. Gonna brazen through th'only way I know how. The Reno way. Laugh it off so he don't know that he's hurtin' me. Just wish I understood, other than th'obvious, what he's got against me. _

_What's worse is that Rude still won't talk ta me. He's upset too, but for different reasons, and I don' know how ta make him understand. I never wanted ta hurt him. But things are different now. I'm not th'man he knew on Gaia anymore, I've changed, and there ain't a damn thing I can do about that now. I grew up. . .I decided for myself what I wanted._

Reno groaned, flopping down onto his back in his bed after recording his log for the day, then looked over at his partner. Tsu'tey had worked him hard that day, and Grace was intelligent enough not to let him out of her sight. Avatars were still extremely expensive to produce, even moreso when one had to maintain the equipment on their own dollar, so to speak, without the financial backing they had had from the RDA, and she was wise enough not to let the Turk, even as well versed in combat as he was, take on the forest on his own until he was trained.

His head turned to spot his partner next to the window. It looked to him as if Rude had not moved since he'd been gone, the bald man still sitting stone still in the same window he'd been in when the slim redhead had linked in and left the base that morning. "Aibou. . .talk ta me. . .please." the voice held a pleading tone to it, Reno shoving himself into the hated contraption that was his only mode of travel inside the base unless he was linked in. Two pushes had him by Rude's side, and the height difference with him in the wheelchair was nearly painful, especially when he tried to meet the dark, strangely unshielded eyes and the larger man tilted his head up to avoid the contact.

"You've decided." were the words to slip out in that deep, rumbling voice that had always reminded Reno of whiskey spilling out over satin, smooth, rich. The words Rude hadn't said were of course those that Reno had always been good at hearing, all of what remained unspoken. _You don't belong to me anymore. As painful as it is, you belong to Pandora, and maybe it's time I let you go. But I don't want to, Dammit, it's the last thing in the world I want to do. Fuck, partner. . .I know I've never said it, but I love you. _

"What the fuck, yo? So I've decided, that means we can't even be friends anymore? _Fuck _ that noise, Rude! You and I have been friends since I was six-fucking-teen years old. I'm not gonna throw that away just 'cause you got your panties all in a damn wad over this supposed 'decision' I've made. Like Jake told me he needed Tsu'tey when the battle came. . .I need you, partner. I'm gonna need you to watch my back and keep me from bein' a sxkawng when push comes ta shove. Ya know I've always been an impulsive little shit, an' bein' a moron in th'middle of a battle is likely ta get me killed, even in an avatar." Those expressive eyes pinned Rude's, begging, _pleading _for him to get it.

"I'm supposed to simply accept this? Without a lick of protest? This isn't _you_, Reno. No matter how much you might want to say it is, it's not. You're not one of _them. _ You're a city kid, grew up in the slums, and damn good at surviving them, this is not you at all." Rude spat the words out, and though it was more than he normally said in the stretch of a week, the opinion had refused to hold itself inside of him, it had had to come out.

The red ponytail rustled across the fabric of the uniform Reno still wore when in this body as he turned his head. "It might notta been me when I got here, Rudy, but now it is. Somethin' changed. . .Or maybe not even really changed, but closer to somethin' woke _up_ inside me that had been sleepin' until I saw this place. Until I got out into th'forest and started to really _see_ it th'way they do. Ya know I never wanted to identify with Momma's half of my heritage, more 'causea th'danger involved than anything else, but there was also an element o'not wantin' to be beholden in it. I never wanted ta be a hero, never wanted to try ta be anything other than th'minion I've always been. It's too damn much work, and people start to expect ya ta be at their beck and call all th'damn time. I admire Strife, man, but fuck if I don't feel sorry for him, too. He's never gonna be outta the cage he made for himself again if we ever get home."

The bald man let out a sigh, and just walked over to his own bed, sitting down on it. "Just. . .try not to get yourself killed." and the words were as close as Rude would come to admitting defeat, to admitting to himself that he had indeed lost to this world that neither of them had been born in. And with that he laid back, closing his eyes. "Get some rack, Red. I can tell you need it."

* * *

"You need to be quiet, listen to the sounds around you, not only with your ears." Tsu'tey's admonishment was sharp, which Reno had expected. The warrior, though he was actually a very good teacher, still didn't have a whole lot of patience with anyone who was or had once been human, and Reno certainly had been that. "The wind in the trees and the scents around you can tell you many, many things."

Slowly, the way he thought of himself was changing, and the pronouns "She" and "Her" began to creep into his thoughts about himself more and more the more he was inside the avatar. Something that he'd not said to Rude, because as much as he adored his partner, the man didn't get what was happening, and Reno was not certain how to explain it in a way that didn't make him sound like a royal bitch.

So he stayed silent, pushing on, not letting the fear or his teacher's sharpness with him affect him. He nodded at Tsu'tey, his ears swiveling to pick up the sounds all around. Several soft yips, much like those of a Guard Hound puppy, had caught his attention, and as Reno turned, he noticed a small litter of _Nantang_ pups, the dead body of their mother around them. He automatically began to gather them up, to take them back to Hellsgate, but Tsu'tey stopped him. "But I can't leave them out here on their own like this, they'll die!" He protested.

"Just watch." The hunter instructed. "Stay back and out of sight, and watch. You must learn to trust the Great Mother. . ." and as he spoke, another _Nantang _found the pups, her own, older than the ones she had found, and only recently having stopped nursing, made it so she could take in the orphaned ones. Two soft yips, and the pups stumbled away from the body of their mother and toward the other female, latching onto her as they would have their own mother. "Eywa takes care of her own. . .even down to the very smallest."

Reno could only nod, and watch, amazed. The more he learned, the more of the city born boy dropped away, and the old Cetra blood returned to the surface, helping the understanding come yet more quickly. Then, he turned, catching something in Tsu'tey's eyes that said that perhaps his feelings might be changing, at least for one of the Sky People.

* * *

As he returned to the base, coming out of link, his eyes went to the window. He remembered something that had been attributed to Grace, "The greatest danger in Pandora is that you may grow to love it too well", just made him chuckle. It was true, as far as it went. The planet was one you could easily fall in love with and not ever look back.

"Come on, Red. . .you need some sleep." Rude had been waiting there for him to come out of link, knowing he would need food and rest when he did. His partner had a tendency to drive himself hard, he always had, and he could tell that had not changed a damn bit. He plopped a plate down in front of the redhead with a lofted brow. "Eat, then sleep. That's orders from the Boss."

"M'fine. . .I need to finish this video log before I get some rack, or it ain't gonna get done." He turned back to the camera, though he was worn out he was doing his best to keep track. "_Not sure how ta explain it. . .but I'm startin' ta no longer think of myself as male, even. . .extended periods of time inside th'avatar have even changed how I see m'self sexually, my gender identity, so ta speak, has taken a major hit, but scarily enough, I find m'self not mindin'. Maybe. .. maybe this is how things were meant ta be, but I just never realized it. _


End file.
